David sat down heavily on the edge of the brown leather living room sofa.
I carried Lily upstairs to her quiet nursery to rock her safely back to sleep.
Mark brought David a glass of cold water and sat down across from him.
"Why has Sarah been acting so extremely hateful and cruel lately, David?" Mark asked.
David put his head in his shaking hands and let out a ragged, painful breath.
"She has been hiding a huge legal secret from all of us for months," David confessed.
Mark and I exchanged quick, worried looks as I stepped back into the dark room.
"What kind of legal secret could possibly justify acting like a monster?" I asked softly.
"Sarah filed for a secret mortgage loan on our house without telling me," David revealed.
My jaw dropped open in utter shock as I listened to my brother's words.
"She lost over fifty thousand dollars in failed risky online stock trades," David continued.
He pulled a stack of crumpled bank envelopes out from his dark jacket pocket.
"The court sent a final foreclosure notice to our home three days ago," David added.
"Why would she do something so reckless and dangerous with your family money?" Mark asked.
"She wanted to pretend we were wealthy so she could buy luxury designer clothing," David said.
David's voice cracked with raw emotion as he stared down at the floorboards.
"She was desperate to get money from Grandma's estate fund this holiday season," David added.
I remembered how Sarah spent weeks asking about our family inheritance paperwork recently.
She wanted to secure her share of the trust fund before the bank took her house.
"She was trying to manipulate Grandma into changing the family will terms," David stated.
Mark slammed his fist down hard onto the wooden armrest of his chair.
"She tried to ruin our family peace just to cover up her financial fraud!" Mark yelled.
"I cannot stay married to a woman who lies and attacks babies," David declared firmly.
The truth was finally out in the open, exposing Sarah's true dark motives.
We realized that her cruel behavior was fueled by pure greed and mounting desperation.